Out on a Limb

I think other times that I have used this stamp set I have only used one animal or bird in the tree, but I decided to use both this time.  I got my inspiration for this card by the squirrels that have decided to share the bird feeder with our birds.  No matter what we do they are determined to eat out of it and there is no corn in the seed we buy. This is for my great nephew who turned 21, this age is hard to make cards for, not young anymore but he is in medical school so he isn't exactly older either.

I stamped the tree base and then the leaves, colored the squirrel with markers and cut him out and used a couple of different small ink pads to ink the bird and cut him out.

Darcie's-- Out on a limb stamp set
Spellbinders -- Deckled Rectangles and Labels trio dies
Cosmo Cricket -- Fleuriste paper
Kraft paper with distress inks added
Martha Stewart -- Leaf punched border
Liquid Pearls -- Chestnut

We only have a few days left in 2016.  Hope you enjoy a great weekend!
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Favorite things

This card went out to my daughter, when I saw this stamp at my Local stamp store I knew it would be perfect for my daughter because she is the most happy with a book in hand, coffee near by, and she wears glasses :) I put a bit of glossy accents on the eyeglasses and the vase where the water is, she thought it was pretty neat.  I cut the base of the card with the spellbinders die so it was quite delicate to open. I drew a line to make it appear that it was sitting on a table  She loved it.

Power Poppy -- Short stacks stamp, colored w/markers
DCWV -- Wild Splendor paper
Spellbinders -- Labels 8 and Decorative Lables 8 dies
Glossy Accents on glasses and vase
Gem, flower center

I feel so bad for my poor girl, she is about 4 hours away at her in laws, they were there celebrating Christmas ( we had them for thanksgiving) and she had come down with a cold prior but it got worse, she spend Christmas day in bed, the next morning she went to the clinic and found out she has a bad case of Bronchitis, when I talked to her on the phone she coughed about every other word so we have been texting the rest of the time.  They are heading home today, but she has to go back to work, the medicine they gave her doesn't seem to really be doing anything. No matter how old our children get we hate to see them so sick.

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy day to stop by,

Connie

Blessings on your day

As you know when one of my Nephews or great nephews turns 16 I usually use this truck for their birthday card and my last nephew has turned 16. My family is so big that I have great nephews that are older than my nephew, crazy isn't it.

I decided to go gray so I embossed it in silver and colored in with gray.  The tire marks and the sentiment is from the same stamp set. Added a few die cut gears and sponged around the edges.

I am linking once again to the Our Daily Bread design, Let's be Sentimental challenge that you can find HERE . You have until December 30th to play along.

Here is another picture, I couldn't decide which to use so I thought I would post both.

Our Daily Bread design -- Special Boy stamp set, embossed in silver and colored w/markers
Gear die cuts
Distress ink -- Black soot

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and will have a great week ahead.

Connie

Merry Christmas

One of the ladies in my stamping group was trying to down size some of her supplies and she sent me a few stamps and this shepherd stamp was one of them.  She also sent along some foam glittered stars, which I applied over the star that was on the stamp.  I stamped a few small stars for the sky and added a touch of shimmer to them.  Sponged on some ink to ground them.

Stampendous -- Shepherd's Peace stamp
Hero Arts -- All occasion messages (star stamp)
Spectrum -- glitter pen
Distress ink - Hickory smoke

I want to wish each and everyone of you that stop by my blog and give such encouragement and friendship to me, the most Blessed Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. May you enjoy time with family and friends.

Hugs,
Connie

Provencal

Another masculine card today this time a birthday card.  I really like this stamp, has that collage feel to it, This was a set I found at the yard sale at my stamp store.  I have tried coloring it before and just didn't like the outcome so this time I just stamped it directly onto the paper and I think I like this better than when I try to color it.

Stampin up -- Provencal stamp set
Cosmo Cricket -- Fleuriste paper
Spellbinders -- classic square lg die
Hot off the press -- Black Jewel Dazzle stickers
American crafts -- Jute

Wow yesterday it got into the 50's here, after those below freezing temps this actual felt warm, so thankful for these days that give you a little break from the very cold temps.

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

ODBDSLC281 Sentimental

I am linking my post today with the Our Daily Bread designs shining the Light Challenge, which is to use one of their sentiments on a card.  I wanted to send my brother in law a card, his sister had passed away and I love this verse for those that know the Lord to take comfort in.  I first stamped the image and then, lined up the sentiment on top.  This stamp set fits into the Spellbinders Labels 18 die.

Our Daily Bread designs -- Scripture Collection 2 and Bird and Butterfly Labels stamp sets
Spellbinders -- Labels 18 dies
Butcher Block -- Sky and Sage block paper
Fashion Bead paint -- silver

Thanks so much for stopping by and if you want to participate in the ODBD challenge you have until December 30.

Connie

Smile

My great niece turned 4 a few weeks ago and this is the card I sent to her, I thought this girl was cute and she reminds me of her fun personality. The little flowers stamped in the corners of the image is from the same stamp set as is the sentiment. I found this paper that I thought went good with the flowers, added a few sequins and I was done.

Hot off the press -- Janie's girls stamp set, image flowers and sentiment colored w/markers
Spellbinders -- Labels 29 and Labels Trio dies
Raspberry Road designs paper from cardmaking and papercraft magazine
Sequins

Busy week ahead, I imagine for you too.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Bird day

I hand delivered this card to a friend at church so I was able to use this Beautiful ribbon that was given to me from a fellow cardmaker, isn't it beautiful with it's two sided colors.  The sentiment tag was also given to me and all I had to do was add a sentiment to it.

Ok so I found these Elmer's 3D glitter glues that I bought when my daughter still lived at home and she is now 27, so they have to be over 10 years old probably more like 15, but I thought I would try rubbing it over the raised embossed areas on this chipboard piece so the embossing would show up more and it actually worked great.  I keep telling myself I hang onto things for too long and then when I use something like this I think, well maybe it isn't so bad I tend to hang onto things, LOL!

I also used some more of that embossing paper that my daughter bought me many years ago and paired it all with another wooden bird cage.

Woodpile Fun -- Wooden bird cage
Studio 18 -- Chipboard Shapes
Sentiment tag and Ribbon from RAK
Elmer's 3 D glitter glue on embossed areas of chipboard
Spellbinders -- Decorative Labels one die

Maybe you can go digging through your forgotten treasures and make a project this weekend.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and taking the time to let me know you did. Have a terrific and safe weekend, we have a lot of storms crossing the country.

Connie

In the Jungle

Does this little guy look like he is in the jungle?  Well that is what I was going for anyway, LOL!  I just think this little guy always brings a smile to my face so I chose it for my great nephew who turned 3. I accidentally used the depossed side of the embossing folder but I think it looks ok, the leaves were punched from glossy cardstock with alcohol inks I had left over.

The tail I cut with my fiskars knife so that I could have it hanging over the sentiment banner.

Inky Antics -- Not Lion stamp, colored w/markers
Cuttlebug -- Floral Screen embossing folder
Spellbinders -- Lg. Deckled Rectangles die
Gina Marie-- Birthday words stamped sentiment
Martha Stewart -- leaf punch

Hope you are all having a good week so far. Trying to stay warm, it seems the heat is running a little more these days.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and let me know you have in this busy time of year.

Connie

Lavender

This is a bigger card, I think it measured 5x6 1/2 but can't remember. I wanted some fancy framing for this :)  I didn't put a sentiment on it, sometimes it is just better left alone, it was a birthday card for my niece, I am also her godmother.  Now she is a mother of 3 boys.

Isn't that some lovely lace and pretty gem, I was gifted those from Sabrina.

Here is a close up of the stamp.

I just love the rustic of the pail but you can dress it up with a pretty frame and it looks great together.

Power Poppy -- Lavender stamp set colored w/ markers
Spellbinders -- Decorative Labels 28
Queen &co. --Irridescent gem

Still working on Christmas cards, how about you?

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, love hearing from you,

Connie

Winterwonderland

I am using this card as a Christmas card but I left off any sentiment just in case the one receiving it would like to keep it displayed all winter long. I think it would make a nice Birthday card for the season too.

I like to use my dies in all kinds of ways and today not only did I use them for their intended purpose but I used them as a stencil.  I wanted to get the look of trees far off in the background.

I started with a piece of transparency the same size of my card, you could use acetate or even old packaging from craft supplies.  If you don't have either you can use cardstock, I just wanted to be able to see through my stencil. I took a scrap piece of the Poppystamps stitched landscape die to give me an idea where I wanted them to be on my finished project and cut out two of the Frantic Stamper small Oregon fir die.

You want the trees to look smaller so only use the top of the trees for the background, here is a picture of both cut out and using a dauber and ink filling in my stencil, I went with an up and down motion for the stenciling since there were so many jagged edges on the tree.  The green tape is just there to hold my stencil to my card base.

To get the blue sky background I used the two pieces I cut out and applied them over the trees I had stenciled and sponged in the blue sky.

I cut two pieces of the stitched landscapes for my background, using foam tape to lift the top piece for dimension. As you can see I have one tall tree and one smaller, I didn't realize that we no longer have the larger tree anymore we just have the small.

I also used the Impression Obsession small deer and inked them up a little bit. HERE is a link to the deer in the store. I used Poppystamps Cheery cardinals, but the store is out of those too but you could use Taylored Expressions birds.

After it was all done I used my glue pen to add glue all over for the snow and added glitter to it.

You can see a little more of the dimension in this picture.

Don't forget to play along at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog for your chance to win a gift voucher to the Dies R Us Store.  A new challenge begins on the first and fifteenth of every month.  Be sure to Follow Us on Facebook too. 

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Thanks for stopping by,

Connie

Foiled Ornaments

I first started off with Frantic Stampers Ornamental Swag die. First cutting the die with green cardstock, then I cut 4 more times using foiled cardstock, I just cut the ornaments this time so I didn't waste the branch part since I didn't plan on using that section, and I combined the different foils in these cards, you can get 4 sets of cards out of this, I am showing two today.

For framing of these cards I used Impression Obsession Rectangle 6 in 1 Frames die I cut it out of cream cardstock and ended up not liking the look so I just colored with my marker and then added some sparkle pen to it.

Here are the dies after I had them cut out, you can mix and match them anyway you would like this way.

I decided since the die is pretty intricate that I might just glue that directly to the DaisyD's papers I used for the background, but wanted a little dimension so I used foam tape on the back of the frame.

Here is the second card I made using the red and gold foil cardstocks for the ornaments.

I love the look of ornaments on a branch and I just loved the details in these ornaments and so quick since they are all in one die.

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Bless you

Here is my next card that I made for one of my blog friends Alex. She has started a new blog but doesn't have anything up yet, she is in need of a new camera so she can share her lovely pictures and talent with us all :)  We are crossing our fingers that Santa has heard about this dilemma and will bring her a new one for Christmas :)

Alex had just recently moved to a new home also and that is what inspired her card today.

I was having a hard time getting a picture without a shadow, for one thing not as many nice sunny days lately, I really need to invest in a set up for my pictures.  Here is another angle of it.

I wanted to get the look of vines crawling up on the sides of this step card so I cut two more that went on the gate and added them to the sides.

Taylored Expressions -- Garden Arbor& Gate, and Arbor Accessories dies
Our Daily Bread Designs -- Blushing rose Collection papers and sentiment
Fiskars -- Grass border punch
Martha Stewart -- Leaf punch
Stickles -- Diamond (flower centers)

Thanks Alex for sharing the beauty of England with us and your lovely self.

Hope you all enjoy the most wonderful weekend ahead, I know that may mean staying home with a warm drink, it seems that most of the U.S. is experiencing a bit of cold temps right now.

I will be having two Dies R us post on Sunday and Monday, hope you can come back for those.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and letting me know you did :)

Connie

More Forgotten Treasures

While looking for something else I came across some papers my daughter gave me when I first started cardmaking, they must be around 13 years old. and I am always challenging myself to use my older supplies so that is how this card started. I added this vellum image from K & co. the tag was also in the set so all I had to do is add a stamped sentiment to it.  This paper was already embossed but wasn't quite as big as my card front so that is why I used this dark brown strip of paper, I had to add a punched border to it of course :)

Simple to put together card, but I really loved the way it turned out and just in time to get it in the mail for my nephews wives birthday.

Here is another pic with a little less glare on the vellum image.

I don't know if JoAnns craft store has this exact set anymore because it is a few years old but they do sell other sets of the vellum and cardstock sets, if your interested.

Old embossed paper
Fiskars -- Eyelet border punch
K&co. - Flora and Fauna Diecut cardstock and vellum set
Gina Marie -- Birthday words
Nuvo -- Golden Sunset glitter drops

Thanks so much for stopping by today, I appreciate hearing from you,

Connie

Stained Glass

I love the look of stained glass and when I saw the line of Mosaic Embossing folders in the Dies R us store I just had to give them a try, and what better time than Christmas. Today I am using Darcie Mosaic Candle.  I used watercolor paper on both of these cards and it embossed very well, water colored with my distress inks and Spectrum Aqua markers.  

On this first card I used an embossing pen to the raised areas, I did half the card and then turned it and did the other half. As you can see in the picture below I went a little off the embossing, You need to just take a paint brush and just lift the embossing powder off the areas that you went to far.

In my second card I decided to use my embossing ink pad so you can see the different look I got from doing it that way.  

Big Tip for you though when doing this, I used my anti static pad on the first one but forgot when I used my ink pad and the embossing powder stuck to the whole card, I am not sure if that was because I was using watercolor paper or not, so I just took my brush cleaned off the entire piece and started again by using the anti static pad and applied the embossing ink and it worked fine the second time.  I have heard if you don't have an anti static pad that people have rubbed a dryer sheet over it or used baby powder.  With this one I decided to go with blue in the background.

Once it was dry I did add some shimmer to the candles and the berries using my Sparkle  clear pen.

Here is the embossing folder I used, check out all the embossing folders they have HERE.

Another fast and mailable idea for your Christmas card giving this season.

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Remember, there is a new inspiration sample shared each and every day of the month

on our Dies R Us Inspiration Blog using a variety of dies from several different companies.

Then of course you'll want to come join us at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog.

There's a new challenge theme offered on the 1st & 15th of each month with

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Thanks for stopping by today!

Gamer Birthday

Is that what they call the kids or people in general that love to play the electronic games like Playstation?  Anyway I don't know much about one of my great nephews so I asked my sister in law what is he in too, he is turning 12 this year, she said he likes to play the computer games and star wars.  So I started brain storming and I remembered an issue of Papercrafts magazine that had a controller on the front so I found it opened it up hoping there was a pattern inside for it, no out of luck it is a Silhouette design.  Well I keep my machine in the closet and thought I might be able to draw that myself.....now don't laugh at what I came up with, I have been deciding whether or not to share, but I thought I would just in case you would like to give it a try.

First I started with my glue bottle and drew a couple half circles around them, drew a line between them for the top of the controller than went down to the left and right of those two and drew two more and then just kind of rounded things off a bit to join those all together.  I hope that makes sense.  I used my round punches for all the controllers, except the one on the left, my hubby had this little rectangle punch that I layered on top of each other in a cross and then I traced that onto the blue paper and tried to cut just a little off all around, that didn't quite turn out so good as you can see.  I thought it needed a little something extra so I shaded around the whole thing with white ink.

Hopefully he thought it was pretty cool.  I tried right :)

Controller -- hand drawn, used circle and rectangle punches for controls
Crate paper -- Party day paper
David Tutera -- Celebration sentiment

Thanks for all the well wishes for the Vertigo, last night I was feeling pretty good thought for sure all was better but woke again this morning feel dizzy again, but as long as things aren't spinning I am thankful, I am wondering if it might be something with my inner ear.

Wishing you a fun and creative weekend ahead.

Connie

Hugs and Smiles

Here is the other card I made using the last of the applique felt leaves my sister gave me. The paper already had that sparkle border so I didn't want to cover it up. I cut the doily off on the sides so it would still fit in the envelope.  Same flower as before just colored yellow this time.

Carolace -- Leaves Applique
Heartfelt Creations -- Open Vintage Floret stamp and die set
DCWV -- Rustic Paper
Prima-- Doily die #572792
Stickles -- Dusty Concord (center of flower)
Gina K -- Tag lines sentiment stamp
Spellbinders -- Labels trio die

Here is another view of it

I had another Vertigo episode yesterday and ended up sleeping on and off all day yesterday and 9 hours last night, I am thinking I might have had a flu or something on top of it but not sure, still not up to my usual self but much better, no spinning so all is good :)  I was able late last night to get on and visit a couple blogs but that's it. Crazy how far behind you can get in just one day, what is worse no cardmaking, hopefully I will be able to get to that today :)

Praying for all those in Tennessee effected by the terrible fires, such a Beautiful area.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,
Connie

Wish you a merry Christmas

I have 3 cards to share all using the same main sentiment die. I am starting with the card with the most detail and working my way down to ones that are a little less time consuming, depending on the time you have to make them.

The main die I have used in all of these cards is the Poppystamps We wish you a merry Christmas die. I first cut the die out of my Basic Grey paper and then added some double stick tape to the openings on the back of the paper so when I cut the die once again out of red cardstock, I could just pick them up and set them into the blank spaces and they would stick, quicker than gluing.  I also cut just the star and ornament out of silver paper.  I also paired it up with the Memory Box Seraphine Laurel die you might remember I used this die here back in August and mentioned I could use this die for all sorts of occasions and I think it frames this die very well. I colored it with markers.

On my second card I die cut it at the bottom right corner and inlaid it with brown cardstock, the star in silver and ornament in gold papers.  I also used Poppystamps Valley snowflakes.  The store no longer carries these dies but you can find many snowflakes to chose from Here .  To give it an extra bit of sparkle I added Frosted Lace Stickles to the snowflakes.

 This last one took the least amount of time to make of all of them, just took some paper, cut the die and added a piece of red paper behind the die opening, only inlaid on it are the star and ornament.

These are all very flat so the mailing would be kept down to a single stamp, I hope you found one option that will work for you.

Here are the dies I used with the links above.

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Remember, there is a new inspiration sample shared each and every day of the month

on our Dies R Us Inspiration Blog using a variety of dies from several different companies.

Then of course you'll want to come join us at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog.

There's a new challenge theme offered on the 1st & 15th of each month with

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Thanks for stopping by today!